They are 18 months into this latest ­venture and their Shanghai office, with its red walls and young staff, looks like the ­classic start-up. But that is not the case.

While Juwai might be a young company, it is no longer a “start-up” having quickly become the world’s number one destination for Mandarin speakers looking to buy ­property overseas.

Last year, that was a $US54 billion ($58.8 billion) global market and Juwai, which attracts 1.5 million unique visitors a month, is usually the first place China’s newly rich begin their search.

The founders say Australia is the second most “searched market” on their site and they expect Chinese sales to top $5.4 billion this financial year, 30 per cent up on last year. “The ultimate souvenir for a Chinese tourist is a property,” says 42-year-old ­Taylor, Juwai’s co-chief executive.

He and fellow Queenslander, Henry , 43, founded, and now jointly run, Juwai, after working together at realestate.com.au.

Shift to services

They are part of a new breed of Australian fortune hunters seeking out opportunities in China as the country becomes increasingly affluent and sophisticated. The pair also embodies a new entrepreneurial spirit: a shift away from resources and into services – an essential one, if Australia is to cash in on the next phase of China’s rise.

Taylor and Henry describe Juwai, which means “live abroad”, as a “dialect play”.

In plain language, that means there’s barely a word of English on the site, which is tailored to Mandarin-speaking Chinese all over the world. At any one time it has 2.1 million property listings across 54 countries.

In recent days, its featured page included everything from apartments in Paris to beachside villas in Bulgaria – and a three-bedroom brick-veneer house in Whyalla – yes, the port town in South Australia.

So what are the preferences of these cashed-up new global property investors?

“There’s no typical Chinese buyer,” Henry says , adding they have fielded inquiries right across the spectrum.

Taylor tells of one buyer wanting to spend $24 million on two properties in Sydney, while another was looking to pump ­$5 million into Australia every year for the next five years.

“We’ve also been asked if we had any shopping centres . . . the buyer had a budget of $350 million,” Taylor says.

Wagga Wagga is where it’s at

Then there was Wagga Wagga in rural NSW. “Wagga was one of the most-searched terms globally on our site for a brief period last year,” Taylor says.

“People couldn’t even pronounce the place, but it had been featured on CCTV (China’s main TV network).”

The feature didn’t lead to a stampede for Wagga property, but it does show how enthralled Chinese buyers are with offshore homes.

The US remains the most-searched destination on Juwai, followed by Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore. Within Australia, over the past year, Melbourne tops Sydney, followed by the Gold Coast, Brisbane then Perth – Wagga and Whyalla don’t make the list.

“Perth is the one to look out for,” Taylor says. “It is rising very quickly.”

Such interest begs the obvious question of what effect Chinese buyers are having on the Australian property market.

Deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Philip Lowe, said during a recent visit to Shanghai that Chinese buyers were not the primary driver of the Australian housing market.

“I don’t think it [Chinese investment] is the main factor affecting Australian housing prices,” he said.

“China is a second-order issue.”

Why Chinese are chasing property

That might be true but Chinese buyers are certainly not insignificant. If figures provided by Juwai and those from Australia’s RP Data are any indication, then Chinese buyers account for about 3 per cent of Australian sales. This desire for offshore property is driven by China’s perverse system of state-controlled capitalism and the increasing insecurity of the country’s newly rich.

This plays out in two ways.

First, wealthy Chinese are increasingly unable to buy additional properties at home, as the government has placed restrictions on purchases in an effort to dampen speculation and rein in prices.

In Beijing, for example, new buyers are officially restricted to a maximum of two properties per person.

With few other investment options, due to the country’s underdeveloped financial system, wealthy Chinese have been forced to look abroad.

And property is what they know.

The second factor driving demand is rising insecurity among the newly rich, who fear their wealth could disappear overnight if they fall out of favour with those in power.

Everyone is vulnerable, given the hyper-corruption of the past 10 years and the number of dubious fortunes that have been accumulated.

Juwai has benefited from these two big macro trends, along with rising demand for Australian education services and an increasing number of migrants.

“They like that Australia has a highly ­regulated and stable property market,” ­Taylor says .

“They also like the lifestyle, the quality of healthcare, the education and that there is already a large Chinese community.”

Taylor and Henry are tight-lipped about Juwai’s financials, expect to say they are a “well funded” private company.

A billion-dollar ambition

But they have no shortage of ambition.

The pair, who are Juwai’s controlling shareholders, are looking to list, perhaps on the Nasdaq, within three years.

Two years later they want to be running a company worth $US1 billion.

“We believe we’re on track to do that,” Henry says.

“We have exceeded every target we set ourselves.”

To understand the size of the potential market they have captured, it’s worth ­looking at an article written by Juwai’s ­editorial team.

It discussed what could be bought for Yuan 1 million ($177,000) around the world.

The answer went viral.

The article was read by 10 million people and re-posted on the Chinese version of Twitter 12,000 times.

But keeping up with this market is the challenge, which is why Taylor and Henry are slaves to nicotine and caffeine.